For the past couple of years STEM has been more and more the focus of conversation in the United States. One thing that you might not hear talked about that much is the importance of making sure that those going into STEM fields come from diverse backgrounds, In an effort to ensure that diversity exists in the STEM workforce, some organizations have chosen to focus on this area. This includes The Center for STEM Diversity and the STEM Diversity Institute (SDI) at the University of Massachusetts African-American, Latino/Chicano, first-generation populations and low-income students are just a few of the groups that these institutions serve.

You can learn more about diversity in STEM in the Fall 2013 issue of YALS, in Tiffany Williams’ article Being Diverse in Our Support for STEM. One of the areas Williams’ covers is access to STEM related courses and content that might not be available in a local community. Williams’ suggests using educational opportunities such as: